Nikon D3, out of the box

My new D3 gets uglied up with tape and a nasty green strap before it goes out the door. I’m sure Nikon’s marketing guys would cringe if they saw it but it’s cheap insurance.

The number one thing I like about the D3 is that it brings the Nikkor 17-35 zoom and 14 mm lenses out of retirement. I am so happy I didn’t sell these two lenses as I added Nikon’s DX lenses to the bag. The two lenses don’t realize optimum use levels unless on a film body or full-sized sensor digital SLR. I typically, try to sell off equipment I’m not using and all the signals from Nikon indicated there would never be a full-size sensor SLR so I’m lucky to still have these two pieces of equipment.

The other thing I like is the twin battery charging unit that comes with the D3. Maybe this fact was included in the pre-reviews but I missed it, a happy surprise.

The camera handles very similar to the D2x but already I find myself recomposing (after locking in the focus) a lot less due to the increased number of focus points. Also, being able to carry two flash cards on board will decrease the number of times I open up the camera. This is critical because I shoot in dusty, dirty environments. These two items should speed up workflow.
One of the other reasons I jumped at the D3 is the prospect of traveling without a tripod. I like to go with carry-on baggage only and a tripod frequently pushes me past what I can comfortably get into two carry-on bags. Whether or not I can get acceptable low light shots without a tripod is yet to be seen. I haven’t shot enough frames yet to give an opinion on how the D3 handles low light. I’ll know more in a week. Stay tuned.